292: When the Eagle Union suspects you have weapons of mass destruction, you'd better actually have them

After hearing Hornet's words, Lin Lan finally closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Under Yorktown's gentle touch, his fury slowly subsided as he waited for her to continue.

Since they put it that way, he wanted to hear exactly what price the Goilia Consortium had paid.

After all, his shipgirls were so kind—if the other side took advantage of that kindness, it wouldn't sit right with him.

"Before that incident happened," Yorktown began, "even though the Goilia Consortium had already been looking for excuses to shortchange our commissions, no one took it too seriously."

"After all, we were still fairly unfamiliar with this country at the time, and none of us wanted to harm ordinary humans."

"But during one escort mission with Cassin and Downes, they deliberately tampered with the cargo and claimed those two children failed the escort, forcing us to sign a breach-of-contract agreement."

Lin Lan was already sneering coldly at this point.

He knew full well who Cassin and Downss were—two little destroyer chibis.

Though their personalities were completely different, these two chibi sisters had once been part of his low-cost labor squad. 

Still, by the mid-game he had given both of them full retrofits and even bought oath skins for them.

After completing his collection from salvage maps, he had long stopped forming low-cost fleets.

Very well, Goilia. All for profit, and you actually dared to bully children like that.

"After gathering sufficient evidence, Saratoga personally led a team to Goilia's headquarters—this artificial island of New Ocean—to negotiate with their board of directors."

Yorktown continued:

"But the other side refused to admit to tampering with the goods, and even threatened to destroy us with weapons of mass destruction, trying to force us into submission."

"So to avoid being wiped out by such weapons, our Eagle Union fleet landed on this island and leveled all of their buildings. 

We dug three feet into the ground and still found no trace of any weapons of mass destruction."

At this point, Yorktown shook her head with regret, seemingly distressed over the amount of oil and ammunition wasted:

"Later, we learned from the surrendered remnants of their board that they never had any weapons of mass destruction—it was just a bluff to scare us."

After hearing this, Lin Lan finally understood why Hornet had said the Goilia Consortium paid in blood.

He had originally thought the Eagle Union, like he had done with Ironblood, had shown off its strength and forced the other side to become a vassal, surrendering the artificial island.

But to his surprise, his Eagle Union shipgirls had simply razed the consortium's headquarters to the ground.

That alone lifted his spirits and improved his mood considerably.

For troublesome corporations in another world like this, you had to wipe them out with thunderous force—just like he had done with Battleaxe Arms.

Still, after his anger cooled, he couldn't help but find the whole thing a bit funny.

The Goilia Consortium had really asked for it—how dare they mouth off in front of Saratoga?

After all, there was an old saying back on Blue Star:

"When the Eagle Union suspects you have weapons of mass destruction, you'd better actually have them."

And as it turned out, the arrogant Goilia Consortium didn't have any WMDs—so all they got was catastrophic retaliation.

"After that, the surrendered board members swore complete loyalty to us. Saratoga and New Jersey officially took over all administrative affairs of the Goilia Consortium."

"They also carried out a series of reforms to the consortium's system. 

Hmm… all in all, it seems to be moving in a good direction. These days, lots of people in this country seem to really like them, hehe~"

Hearing Yorktown's slightly amused tone, Lin Lan couldn't help but agree.

Back in the Anna Island oil fields, those workers had saved him—and he'd already seen with his own eyes how much admiration the shipgirls of the Eagle Union had earned among them.

But he was still very curious—just what kind of reforms had Saratoga and New Jersey implemented to make one of the Five Major Consortiums, the Goilia Consortium, "great again"?

After all, everything he saw in the oil fields was completely unlike the rumors he'd heard back at Red Maple Naval Academy. 

It was as if this were an entirely different organization.

He figured he'd ask Little Gaga or Bunnyhead New Jersey personally—no need to trouble Lady York with the details.

Once he sorted his thoughts, he looked at Yorktown with a smile and said:

"So all the facilities on this island were rebuilt by you with Manjuu, huh? No wonder the place gave me such a port base vibe from the start."

Now that the Goilia Consortium, which had bullied the chibi sisters, was basically just a name and completely absorbed into the Eagle Union's assets, Lin Lan naturally let go of his anger.

"Yorktown-neesan, we've been talking for a while—shouldn't we take the Commander on a little tour outside?"

Enterprise smiled and made the suggestion to Yorktown.

Hornet chimed in cheerfully:

"Yeah, yeah! Hanging around here is boring—let's take the Commander out for a spin!"

"That's a good idea. Commander, if you're feeling alright, how about we take you outside for a bit?"

Yorktown smiled and extended the invitation.

"Sure, I'll be in your care then. This New Ocean Artificial Island looks really beautiful. I'm actually quite looking forward to seeing what you've turned it into."

Lin Lan agreed readily, glancing out the window at the scenery of the island.

After his conversation with the Yorktown sisters, his body had mostly recovered. While he wasn't back to peak condition, he could walk on his own without assistance.

With that, he stretched a little and then left the room with the Yorktown sisters.

"Commander, this is the island's medical center. The lower floors are the dormitories for the destroyer kids."

Once they arrived in a clean, empty hallway, Yorktown smiled and explained to Lin Lan.

"No wonder it's so quiet here. Normally this area doesn't get much use, right?"

"This area is usually sealed off. You're the first person to ever stay here, Commander."

Enterprise answered as she opened the window and let her bald eagle fly out.

The four of them stepped into the elevator. Hornet, now wearing her cowboy hat, eagerly pressed the button for the first floor.

Only then did Lin Lan realize the building they were in had twenty floors.

As the elevator descended, Hornet casually wrapped her arm around his and grinned at him:

"Commander, wanna get some ice cream? There's an ice cream shop downstairs—I'll treat you~"

"Haha, the Commander just woke up—ice cream isn't really ideal. Hornet, don't give him a stomachache."

Yorktown turned to gently adjust Hornet's hat, then also wrapped her arm around Lin Lan's.

The four of them soon reached the first floor. As the elevator doors opened and Lin Lan stepped out, he was greeted by a spacious and tidy lobby.

The bright morning sunlight streamed through the glass walls around the lobby, which looked like it belonged in a commercial skyscraper. 

For a moment, Lin Lan felt as if he were back on Blue Star, in a big city.

The lobby was furnished with sofas equipped with pillows and clean blankets, as well as coffee tables covered in comic books, magazines, and toys.

There were even bookshelves with baseball bats, knee pads, and other sports gear.

It was clear to Lin Lan that this was the destroyers' usual rest area.

"At this hour, the destroyers should still be in class or out on drills. It gets pretty lively here after school."

Enterprise glanced around the empty lobby and explained after a moment of thought.

"They have to go to class?"

As the group headed toward the lobby's entrance, Lin Lan was surprised to hear Enterprise's comment.

He'd assumed the shipgirls only needed to do drills—he didn't expect them to attend classes too.

After all, in the Ironblood faction he'd never seen the Z-class destroyers in class—they were more often busy with cleaning or combat training.

"Commander, what are you saying? All the kids in the port have to go to class—that's something you personally approved and supported, you know?"

Yorktown's smiling words left Lin Lan stunned.

He stared in disbelief at Lady York, who was holding onto his arm, his face filled with confusion:

"When did I approve something like that?"

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